More than a month ago, the 184-foot yacht owned by technology millionaire Mike Lynch suddenly sank. The ship was anchored off the coast of Sicily for a night of partying when an unexpected “freak storm” appeared in the nearby waters. Within 16 minutes, the ship sank. Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, his lawyer and several others drowned.
The tragedy immediately aroused suspicion due to the bizarre timing of the yacht’s sinking. Lynch and company boarded the boat to celebrate Lynch’s latest legal victory: The tech executive was recently acquitted in a decade-long fraud case involving the sale of his software company to HP The multi-billion dollar deal in 2011, after years of fighting fraud charges related to the deal, a US court – just two months before the tragic boating incident – cleared the tech executive in connection with the case. Not guilty on all charges.
Now, CNN is reporting that the yacht, named the Bayes, may have a waterproof safe containing a “super-encrypted hard drive,” sure to outrage conspiracy theorists. Lynch clearly doesn’t trust cloud services, so he always carries an encrypted drive with him when he goes overseas. Citing four sources familiar with the local police investigation, the outlet reported that the drives may “contain highly sensitive data related to a number of Western intelligence agencies.”
To support this argument, CNN highlighted Lynch’s ties to high-level government, noting that he “has ties to the British, U.S. and other intelligence services through his various companies.” (Lynch is involved in the cybersecurity industry, which Often working closely with government agencies), he has served as an adviser to a number of British Prime Ministers in the past, including David Cameron and Theresa May.
Authorities are now trying to seize and secure the submerged hard drive. CNN (CNN) reports that police are increasing security and underwater surveillance around the wreck, apparently concerned that it could be targeted by foreign governments (Russia and China were both mentioned).
This is an extremely strange twist in a story that already has plenty of strange twists. Case in point: Lynch’s business partner Stephen Chamberlain (and a co-defendant in the recently concluded legal proceedings) died the same day Lynch’s boat sank. On August 17, Chamberlain was hit by a car while jogging and died of his injuries two days later. Although this sounds like it comes directly from Michael Claytonor it could just be a coincidence. The apparent driver of the vehicle that struck Chamberlain is described as a 49-year-old woman who “remained at the scene” after police arrived.
When Lynch’s software company Autonomy was acquired by HP for $11 billion in 2011. However, Lynch left the company shortly after the deal closed, and its operations soon fell into trouble. He was subsequently accused of inflating Autonomy’s value before selling it to Hewlett-Packard. Lynch has denied the accusations and insisted that HP screwed up the company’s operations after acquiring it. After years of fighting the charges in court, U.S. courts finally agreed with Lynch.
Lynch’s attorney, Chris Morvillo, who helped Lynch win a lawsuit against HP, and his wife also died when the Bayes sank. The couple has been celebrating the legal victory with Lynch.
